Taming the Beast [China]

[Nox]

The Atharim dossier on Sheng Ch'en, the government official that both they and the Ascendancy wanted dead was limited to just a name, a potential issue. The one that came from his newest handler had much more detailed information. They weren't going to rely on Nox to figure it out. The proof was in the report. The people who had been influenced by the man. The causes he'd funded. He was making a bigger ruckus now that General Sing was dead as well. The two were connected in some way.

It didn't matter to Nox as long as their was proof. It never occurred to him that maybe they just both wanted him dead because he was a channeler. But he seemed a natural thread to the CCD at the very minimum, and that's where he called home. The only people he cared about were there. He had no one else left.

No amount of dallying was going to make this job any easier. The biggest challenge was going to be finding a way to kill the man and not make a scene. He had a wife and kid. Nox didn't want to make this mor trouble than it was worth.

He wasn't opposed to breaking and entering. And still there was the subtly of his gift. Staging a break in would draw attention. Nox didn't want that anymore than he wanted the man to die publicly. Decisions were harder to make when you were the one making them.

It took several nights before Nox was able to plot the man's death.

It was simple yet the most complicated thing he'd done todate. Weaving illusions was one thing, weaving them in the shadows made it better, but there was only a handful of times he could actually get into the man's house. And there was no guarantee that he'd be able to pull it off.

It was a long few days as he planned. And felt even longer as he stood in the shadows of the Master bedroom behind a carefully crafted illusion. As long as he didn't move no one would know. The weave was inverted and tied off. No one would know he was there as long as he didn't move.

Three house passed and Nox wove a cone of silence over himself, his stomach rumbled. The horde grew hungrier by the minute.

When night fell Mr Ch'en and his wife came in frisky and wanton. Watching wasn't exactly his thing but he couldn't leave. Couldn't join in and he wanted to at least let his wife have one last good memory of her husband before he passed into the afterlife.

Hours into the night they slept soundly and Nox wove a new weave one he could maintain while moving but hid him still from whatever cameras left unfound in the room. He wasn't going to be too careful. He wove the power of the gods and stopped the mans heart. He died peacefully in his bed with little more than a gasp as his last breath left his body.

It was harder sneaking out. He'd have to wait till he could use the security changes and other personnel changes as his cover. Nox had no choice but to wait.

Silent and hungry Nox waited the night out. And when the shifts changed Nox left his shadows and the building with no incident.

There was a beast inside to feed on so many levels and Nox went in search of whatever he could to feed it. The darkness grew with each kill with each passing day he away from home. This was not the way he wanted to live.